Might is Right
by Ollyb123
Summary: Varo, famous all around the Xolhab galaxy, whose adventures with his companion Leethya never really turn out just as expected. Naturally, when you have a very boyish and self loving captain like Varo, hilarity ensues... *M for gore and strong language*
1. Chapter 1 Dustbowl

Might is Right

Chapter 1

Dustbowl

Tallan was a desert planet – nothing but small plants and burrowing animals lived there. At a glance it may look like a T0 class planet, but it was in fact clinging to the status of T1. The plants were black and gnarled, and the animals rarely moved to save the precious little water there was. A small Geboya, a rodent like creature with two little paws, each with 3 long nails, burst through the layer of sand, one small eye narrowed against the buffeting sandstorms. It took a moment to realize it was in a shadow of a huge floating craft. It slowly shrunk back into its burrow as the Spaceship sped along. On the side of the hull, glinting gold in the afternoon sun was a name – the _OHS Righteous._ It came to a halt and sank lower and lower, coming to rest behind the tall walls of a colony. With a slow hiss and a dull thump, the landing gear extended and the boarding ramp was set down.

A short, slightly muscled bird strolled down on two legs, wings resting on its back, hawk clawed hands in plain view, with a beak that was bony and spiked along the top. It had eyes of a dull orange, with red feathers which became more of a muddy pink on its belly. Clad in a loose fitting metal suit and trench coat, it clanked its way to a small, wooden saloon near the city walls, long feathers fluttering in the sandstorm beside its head like hair. It pushed on the door, which opened into a room filled with pipe smoke.

Hundred of aliens of all different types were huddled around tables with bottles in hand. Some looked towards the door when it entered, but knew when to mind their own business and look away. Something told them that this new arrival wasn't like them. The scarlet bird slowly made its way towards the bar, where a tall, frog like man with eyes on stalks turned to him, still cleaning a glass of deep blue.

"What're ya drinking, Varo?" it grunted.

"Nothing fancy, how 'bout a Triolite Lc'teth?" Varo replied, looking around the seedy bar. He spotted a 3-eyed purple alien, speaking quickly and quietly in a strange, language that consisted mostly of hissings and clicks. Its eyes darted around it as it spoke, each staring in different directions, as its large mandibles clicked together. A small yellow lizard nodded and agreed, looking just as furtive. Varo turned back to the barman.

"Hey, Klesch!" he whispered. The barman turned back to Varo, a half filled glass in his hand. "D'you know what Glars'hivick's having?"

"Eh? Oh, Glars is havin' a Xlatan," Klesch said, "and Yorvish…" he indicated the yellow lizard, "has got a Double Jigolio." Varo made a chirping whistle sound.

"I see Yorvish has come into some money, then?" he said with mock surprise. He'd been on Yorvish' tail for a while now, and he knew he was running an illegal Cansathus ranch.

Cansathus were dangerous, particularly the males, and they had dangerous jaws and two powerful insect-like legs. Many species used them as mounts, particularly the Ornathay – the species he was proudly part of. They more commonly used the reptilian Kinthas, but some, including Varo, had tamed his own from a small child and had kept it back on the homeworld ever since.

Cansathus ranches were popularly used by criminals as a quick way to get money, as Cansathus were quite rare. Banacho, the Ornathay Home world, had only 4 identified herds of around 15 animals. If Yorvish was running a ranch, he could use the money he earned for goodness knows what…

"Hey Yorvish, found some money, have you?" Yorvish started and span round, only to come face to face with Varo. He narrowed his eyes and grunted.

"What'ssss it to you?" he hissed. His specie's snake-like tongue gave them distinctively long 's' sounds.

"What's it to me?" Varo said, his eyes widened in surprise at Yorvish' stupidity. "Well, let's see. I'm designated ranger of this system, an' I happen to know that you've got a ranch on planet Uvulon-2, with a warehouse on Uvulon-1…"

Before Varo could continue, Yorvish had stood up and was pointing a phase-stunner right into Varo's face. Glars'hivick was quick to follow, pulling a long Tesilon Beam-Rifle from a holster on his back. People in the bar stopped talking and looked towards Varo and Yorvish.

"You couldn't jussst leave it alone now, could you?" Yorvish spat, glaring at Varo. "You could've left this ssssandy rock and crawled back to your precioussss Banacho, but now," he said venomously, "I'm afraid thissss issss it for you… Captain Varo." He smirked and pointed his stunner towards Varo's heart – a full power blast at close range would quite easily stop it from ever beating again. Yorvish stared into Varo's eyes and made a face of mock sadness, and pretended to blink tears away… but on the second blink, Varo had gripped Yorvish' neck and was using him as a living shield. He had yanked of his coat off and revealed the electrically-charged power armor, complete with powered claws, and scratched the side of Yorvish' neck, where beads of greenish blood began to form.

"What's it gonna be, Glars'hivick?" he breathed, pushing the claw further into the side of Yorvish' neck. "I could always turn on the power… that's run some nasty energy through Yorvish' body…" Varo grinned at the sight of Glars'hivick's bug-like face, small drops of sweat forming on his brow.

"Or," Varo continued, "I could flip the triggers of the pulse rays and send a disruption field through his puny brain." Varo's claws were unique, as they had built in pulse rays – an uncommon feature that was rarely found even in the highest end models. They could also send two different kinds of energy through them: the more common plasma energy or the slightly rarer and dangerous modified electromagnetic energy. Modified electromagnetic energy could send anyone into a coma almost instantly, as well as fry their armor and weapon systems.

He could see that Glars'hivick was struggling to make a decision. The barrel of his rifle trembled slightly. Varo glance at his hostage's face – his eyes were bulging slightly, the cocky smirk now replaced with a grimace, and his bright golden face had turned a shade creamy yellow in places. Glars'hivick shook his head to clear it and steadied his rifle, before letting out a shrill squeal as Yorvish' head became nothing more than a bloody stump, still trying to pump greenish blood to the brain that was no longer there. Varo's claw had swept cleanly through his flesh, and Yorvish' head had rolled a few feet towards the bar, looking surprised to be dead. Suddenly the whole bar was in uproar.

All manner of alien species pulled out firearms and began shouting and blasting wildly. Klesch ducked behind the bar, only to emerge a moment later with a double-barreled scatter blaster. Varo, taking advantage of the chaos, ran straight to the door. He thought he heard Klesch shout after him, calling him back in an angry voice, but he just smirked and ran to his ship, punching the boarding ramp's button on the way in, which swung shut behind him with a clunk. Panting, he sat in his chair and gripped the control lever, tapping various buttons on the control panel and checking the HUDs.

"_OHS Righteous, _you are not clear for leaving. Where do you think you're going? The port authority…" Varo flicked off the radio, grinning to himself as the engines whirred into life. The _Righteous _shot straight up and the landing gear retracted, leaving the port authority ships as dust in his wake.

"Computer; set course for star system Haelicorn. I've got some business to tend to." Varo sat back in his chair, grinning wider than ever before. Now that Yorvish was gone, a few of his clients needed to be 'informed.'

"Hold it…!" cried a voice behind him. He smiled and put his hands up, turning his chair to face Leethya, his only crew member, pointing a pulse pistol at him. When she saw who she was threatening, she hurriedly lowered the gun and rubbed the back of her neck, looking disgruntled.

"Spode damn it, Varo, you gotta stop doing that!" she said, staring at him in disbelief.

"Doing what?" said Varo, still sporting his smirk.

"You know full well!" she yelled. "The port authorities, you idiot, across the entire bloody galaxy you've pissed off at least 500 planet's port security!"

"~Just doing my job, Leeth~" he sang, turning back and double checking the navigation terminal. He heard her give an annoyed click of the tongue, and he could just imagine her standing in the doorway shaking her head at him. He didn't turn back until he heard her clawed feet clicking back along to her room.

Varo refused to let anyone other than fellow Ornathay onto the ship. The number of different races he had to deal with daily gave him many enemies. It seemed for every enemy he made, he made an ally with another race who had a long term argument with the first, which made keeping aliens on board risky – he couldn't tell how they were going to feel about him one day to the next. That's why when he heard Leethya's amazing singing talent at a bar of Graxigon-4, he walked to the backrooms and asked her to join him on his ship. She came useful for diplomatic missions because she had a way with words, and, when the situation turned ugly, she had at least 4 energized knives on her person at all times that Varo knew of. She had a particularly well built body and exotic beauty that also came in handy for missions that may involve seduction, and sometimes when Varo was thinking deeply, lost in a world of his own, he'd come too, finding himself somehow staring at Leethya. But he didn't let his love life or wishful thinking get in the way. His job came first and foremost, no matter how lovely such distractions might be.

And here he was again, lost in his own world, sitting on the chair gazing back into space. He shook his head and proceeded to the kitchen at the back of the ship, where Leethya was preparing a broth of some sort, made from the roots of some exotic plant and a leftovers from yesterday's roast Spoffit. He sat at the head chair of the table and put his legs up.

"Smells nice," he said suddenly, almost making Leethya drop the boiling pot. She slammed it onto the thermal ring and scowled at him. He just grinned boyishly back. Indeed, life was good.

***


	2. Chapter 2 Vortex

Might is Right

Chapter 2

Vortex

It seemed to Varo that Leethya found that the best time to lecture him about how he behaved was at meal times. Naturally he would put his elbow on the table and lean his face on his hand, picking at his meal idly, occasionally nodding in agreement or saying "uh huh."

"… Ornathay, Varo! We're noble birds! Birds of righteousness and purity! Is that not what they taught us in out schools at home?" she trilled.

"Hmm, says Miss Graxigon-4 strip bar singer…"

"You-can't-exactly-complain-you-went-in-there-yourself!" she said hurriedly… "And you can't deny that you didn't enjoy yourself in there…" she added quickly "…with the other women, I mean, not…" she added just as quickly, her sentence trailing off into silence. If it had been possible, her face would have gone red, but it was red anyway because of the feathers… None the less, Varo seemed to have unnerved her and she didn't talk for the rest of dinner. He did remember their first meeting, and he had enjoyed it, but… well, Leethya had decided not to press the subject for a very good reason.

The rest of dinner passed without event in awkward silence. Leethya announced she was going to bed, leaving Varo to clean up, grumbling. Once the ship looked almost as clean as it had been when they arrived, he too decided to retire to his cabin. He set the ship in orbit around a small star and switched off the lights, before shuffling to his room and falling gratefully onto the bed.

Varo woke with a hearty yawn. When he went to the kitchen, Leethya was already preparing some eggs taken from an unfortunate animal's nest. Varo sat in his chair, propped his legs on the table and stretched his arms. He couldn't wait until they landed again – how he longed to stretch his wings. He had kept them straight while on Tallan and had not had the chance to fly for two days. He was brought out of his longing desire for flight when Leethya set down the large plate of fried eggs onto the table, and Varo tucked in with gusto, now realizing not only his wings were aching, but that his stomach was groaning in pain. He shoveled the eggs into his beak and chewed them. Of course, normal birds didn't have teeth, but the Ornathay's beaks concealed a fully functioning mouth, and the feathers were mostly for show – they could be identified more closely as large, bipedal, feathered bats. Their breeding habits could also be considered more… humanoid… rather than bird-like. There was no egg-laying happening here.

"Hungry?" asked Leethya, with a slightly bemused expression on her face.

"Wehw, wiv a jod li…" he swallowed, and began again. "Well, with a job like mine, you need all the energy you can get," he finished.

Leethya raised an eyebrow and grunted, dishing herself out a plate of fish.

"Hey! Woah, woah, WOAH!" shouted Varo, causing Leethya to turn quickly, her hand moving to a knife cleverly concealed on her ankle.

"Erm, you never told me we had fish," said Varo sheepishly, staring wide eyed at Leethya's ankle, her hand inches away from the knife's handle. She rolled her eyes and continued cooking, leaving Varo scowling at her.

"So, any plans for today?" she asked brightly.

"We're taking the BH route," he said. He always grinned at the expression on Leethya's face whenever he mentioned the prospect of Black Hole travel. She almost fainted when she found out Varo had installed a Wormhole Key.

"Nuh-uh," said Leethya, backing away to her cabin, "No way. Not in a million years."

"Oh come on!" cried Varo. "We've done it before. Last time… well, yes, we did get stretched and shrunk and thrown around, but this time will be different!"

"Prove it!" screamed Leethya.

Varo rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue.

"Trust me for once, Leeth!" he sighed. "I know that the idea of being compressed into a singularity scares you (she gave a shudder) but it would probably scare anyone. Get over yourself!"

She hesitantly agreed.

"Ok then, let's get this show on the road!" Varo roared, leaping into his seat and booting up the ships console. Lights faded into life and the ship's ambient humming grew steadily louder. Leethya slowly slipped into the seat to his left, panting as though she had run a marathon.

"Initiate program "LA-1-B, computer!" he said.

"Wormhole drive active," the computer said, in its metallic, female voice.

"Prepare to Warp… Entrance Found: PO-617581Q17M"

Leethya was breathing heavily and was clutching tightly onto her seat. Varo put a hand over hers and smiled encouragingly, squeezing it affectionately, before punching a large blue button on the control pad.

"Here we GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" he shouted, laughing maniacally. Leethya looked as though she were going to throw up any moment as the ship's hull began to warp, wave and stretch…

They were off, a swirl of blue and black and bright light shining through the cockpit. Varo continued to laugh, but Leethya had leapt out of her seat and threw her arms around Varo, screaming and sobbing and shaking violently. Varo seemed oblivious to this.

And as quickly as it began, it stopped.

Varo rubbed the back of Leethya's head comfortingly, still chuckling. He pulled her up off the floor and sat her on his lap, rocking her gently until she stopped shaking.

"Not too bad, was it?" Varo said, grinning boyishly as ever.

"Not… in a million… years!" she said, taking a gulp of breath every few seconds.

"Whatever!" said Varo. He steered the ship to a nearby star and decided to land on a small colony on the moon of a gas giant to refuel. He contacted the ground crew who operated the fuel pumps and was informed he'd be here for at least two hours while the ship was being refueled.

"I'm staying on board," said Varo. "You?" he asked, looking toward Leethya. She was swaying slowly from side to side, her arms clutched tightly to her body. Varo was admiring the effect this had on her breasts when she noticed and slapped him full across the face.

"Well, I was thinking of staying, but seeing as the only reason you seem to keep me here is for some cheap eye candy, I think I'll take a stroll!" she stormed, before stepping into the air lock. Varo just sat there watching the door before standing up and sighing.

"Tactless, Varo," he muttered to himself, "absolutely tactless…"

***


	3. Chapter 3 Bastal

Ach! I am so sorry for completely neglecting the story. Well, my excuse is that I'm heading into the realm of GCSE's, so please do bear with me.

-Olly

Might is Right

Chapter 3

Bastal

The outer airlock of the OHS righteous slid open. Varo stepped out onto the surface of the moon, looking for Leethya. They were due to leave in around 5 minutes, but she still hadn't returned. Bouncing along in the 0-gravity atmosphere of the moon, Varo made his way to the airlock of one of the few buildings to be found – a sleazy bar, no less.

Once the inner airlock of the door slid open, Varo smiled. It was just perfect in every way. It was a massive congregation of all manner of species – greens, blacks, blues and even glow-in-the-dark colors swam before him, talking in hushed, quick voices and some simply sitting silently, enjoying the taste of the drinks they were nursing. Varo's eyes were drawn instantly to the corner, where a few amphibious Yaurags were enjoying pay day with some good-time females. Varo's smile spread from ear to ear as he strolled casually through the bar. He gave the room another sweeping look before pulling up a stool at the service table.

"Anything to drink, ssssir?" asked a reptilian voice. Varo narrowed his eyes a little – you always had to be careful around Macorrans, and Yorvish had been a case in point. He stared at the squat yellow lizard before him, its head cocked slightly sideways in question. He cleared his head and remembered where he was.

"Oh, I don't mind. Whatever you got, so long as it's not too cheap, not too expensive, hm?" he replied, giving the bar another surveying glance. The barman nodded and disappeared behind the bar, emerging with a shot glass and a bottle of Uuvo's Trilin-style whiskey.

Varo moved slightly sideways to make room for another drinker. He glanced across at him and stared wide eyed – another Ornathay.

"Hey," he said. The new drinker turned to him and gave a brief smile before turning to order his drink. "What's another Ornathay doing way out here?" Varo asked him, turning his body away from the bar to talk to him.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing," he said, turning himself to face Varo. His voice was deep compared to Varo's voice, which hadn't changed much since he came of age on his 23rd birthday.

"Ranger," replied Varo, gesturing to the small insignia engraved into his chest armor.

"Ah," said the Ornathay. "I see. I'm Bastal, by the way," he continued, holding out a clawed, hawk-like hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Bastal. I'm Varo," he replied, grasping Bastal's hand and shaking it. Once the handshake broke, Varo continued: "Tell you what… how 'bout you join me on my ship? I could use extra crew members, and my relationships with alien races change day to day. I find that keeping other Ornathay on board does away with the danger."

Bastal gave him a surveying look before looking around the bar, a smug grin on his face.

"How often do we stop at places like this?" he asked, gesturing to the bar with one hand and grasping his whiskey with the other.

"All the time," replied Varo, smiling back at his newfound friend.

"It's a done deal," said Bastal, holding out his hand once more. Varo gripped it tightly before breaking away.

"The _OHS Righteous _at port 7 is clear for lift off," came a voice over the intercom, ringing throughout the bar.

"That's our flight," said Varo, guessing at the price of his whiskey and doubling it, before setting a small pile of coins on the table. Bastal made a chirping whistle.

"You've got an _OHS _ship?" Bastal asked, "Isn't there only one of those for every T3-Class planet in our empire?" Varo nodded.

"In fact, my ship is the one constructed on the first T3-Planet we conquered, not including the home world." Varo answered, strolling through the sea of tables and people. He walked straight into a large, green, fish-like creature with four arms.

"Hey, watch where your going!" the fish-thing croaked. Varo recognized it as a Rilona. They weren't common in this part of space. This alien must have come a long way from home.

"Whatcha gonna do about it, eh?" Varo breathed. He noticed too late that for every arm the fish thing had, there was a pistol in a holster on its belt. Before it could draw its weapons, Varo screamed for everyone to get down and upended an empty table, ducking behind it and pulling Bastal with him. Where he had been standing a few seconds before, jets of blue light hurtled past and crashed into the bottle racks behind the service table, sending them crashing backwards into the wall.

"Never a dull moment with you, I'm guessing?" Bastal shouted to Varo over the screaming and gunshots in the bar.

"Never," Varo answered his usual boyish glint in his eyes complimented by his wicked smile. Flicking a few switches on his claws, the pulse blasters began to hum and the claws glowed bright with turquoise light. He noticed Bastal pulling out a small proton gun from a holster on his leg, checking the charges still left: 14. He smiled before leaning out from the table and firing a couple of shots, which made whizzing sounds as small blue projectiles bounced off of walls and into flesh. Proton guns were unique in that their projectiles weren't deadly until they had bounced off of a solid surface.

"You need practice to use one of those," Varo complimented, leaping under another table and firing a few charges from his pulse blasters into some unsuspecting hostile aliens. Bastal followed suit.

"Thanks," he said, breathing heavily and exchanging the ammo in his proton gun for a new clip. They continued in this way, leaping from table to table, each successful run getting them closer to the door. Bastal took a stray hit into his shoulder, but wasn't too badly hurt. They were two tables away from the door when some Port patrol officers barged in, stunner guns ablaze, and tried to seize as many people as they could.

"This is where the party ends!" shouted Varo, pulling Bastal along whilst running to the door. An officer aimed at him and fired, but he dropped Bastal and went into a roll, before leaping straight into the officer and thrusting a claw into is stomach, twisting and ripping it out. A pool of purple blood began to form on the floor.

"Run, Bastal! I'll give you covering fire from here!" cried Varo, firing off a few charges from his pulse blaster from the doorway.

Leaping up from a crouching position and firing blindly backwards, Bastal sprinted straight towards the exit and hurtled through. Varo slammed the airlock door shut and tapped the button on the wall, causing the lock to depressurize. The two Ornathay adjusted their suits to adapt to the pressure, and glass domes surrounded their faces, protecting them from the lack of air. Once the green light signaled that the door was safe to open, the two burst out onto the surface of the moon and ran as fast as they could in the low gravity towards Varo's ship… only to find Leethya staring daggers into Varo.

"Ah…" Varo began, looking at Leethya with an apologetic look, but the smile still on his face. "Leethya, Bastal. Bastal, Leethya?" Varo tried, looking and gesturing from one to the other.

"Hello Bastal," Leethya said, rolling her eyes and gesturing wryly to the door behind her, letting Bastal pass. He gave Varo one last look as he passed, almost apologizing, before the door shut behind him. Leethya turned back to Varo and walked over.

From behind the door, Bastal could hear murmured voices, before they stretched into a long silence. Then he heard loud slapping noises, flinching at the ferocity, and then heard a voice that sounded feminine but horrifically monstrous at the same time.

"YOU STUPID BASTARD!" Leethya shrieked, each word punctuated with a sharp blow to Varo's face. His eyes couldn't cope with the sudden movement and began to swirl in their sockets…

It was times like this that, indeed, life was not good at all.


End file.
